Observations
by S.B. Kisses
Summary: Stresseman lay passed out on Chiaki's couch, a result of a long evening with the lovely girls at the host club. Alright, so Stresseman really wasn't passed out.  Slight ChiakiNodame. Oneshot.


**Observations**

By S.B. Kisses

Stresseman lay passed out on Chiaki's couch, a result of a long evening with the lovely girls at the host club. Alright, so Stresseman really wasn't passed out. Stresseman suppressed a giggle as Chiaki muttered on about his sensei and his poor tolerance for liquor.

In all reality, Stresseman, for all his years of partying and mingling, had a very high tolerance for alcohol. Pretending to pass out merely provided an escape from lectures from Elize or Chiaki or whoever decided to haul his drunken old butt home. Stresseman faked a snore as he heard the doorbell ring.

A familiar voice rang out through the living room.

"Chiaaaakii-seeennnpaai!!!" Cried a somewhat forlorn voice. Stresseman heard what sounded like a small scuffle. "No, senpai!! Let me in!" Stresseman heard the door slam shut, Nodame's whining muffled by the wooden structure. "Senpai! It's really an emergency." Pounding at the door. "Senpai!!!"

The old conductor, head turning slightly and angled toward the wood floor, peaked through his eyelashes and watched Chiaki's slippers as they hesitated toward the door, stopped, headed halfway across the apartment back toward his bedroom, before abruptly turning and striding irritatedly toward the front door.

The door creaked open. "Can you keep it quiet? Stresseman's sleeping." Chiaki hissed, probably as an excuse to keep Nodame's voice down. Stresseman heard more muffled arguing. "What can you POSSIBLY need at 3:47 in the morning Nodame?" There was more rustling before the door closed. Stresseman listened to whom he presumed to be Nodame plop herself noisily on the floor by the table.

"Senpai, Nodame's cable was cut off! Why would anybody cut off cable so early in the morning? In the middle of the PuriGurota Marathon??" Nodame said sadly.

Stresseman, intrigued, adjusted himself discreetly to listen more closely to the conversation. He very much wanted to hear how his cold and abrasive student would respond to such a silly complaint. Stresseman fought back a loud chuckle as he heard a thwack.

"Baka! You've watched the whole series already! Go home!" Stresseman heard more scuffling.

"Chiaki-Senpai! Let Nodame borrow your TV! Just for the rest of the marathon!"

"How long is that?"

"Well..." A hesitation. "Five more hours..." Nodame mumbled. Chiaki groaned.

"Nodame!"

"Please? Please? Please!!"

Chiaki groaned again, this time more loudly. "Fine, fine! Just keep it down!"

Something about Chiaki's irritated but defeated tone told the old maestro that an evening like this was more or less a common occurance. 

"Hehe, Nodame knew she could come to her husband for help." Stresseman listened to more scuffling, and through his eyelashes watched as a pair of pink polkadotted pajama bottoms lunge forward toward a pair of black sweat pants. Stresseman almost blew his cover in an attempt to keep from roaring from laughter as Chiaki ducked and the pajama bottomed Nodame flew overhead, disappearing from Stresseman's rang of vision for a moment before she crashed again to the floor.

"I'm not your husband!" Chiaki said loudly.

"Shhhhhh! Milch is still sleeping!" Nodame reprimanded lightly from the floor, getting up quickly.

"Bah, he's passed out drunk. A train barreling through the wall wouldn't wake him up."

"But Chiaki-senpai told Nodame earlier..."

"Forget what I said!"

"Nodame remembers everything her husband tells her. Mukya 33" Nodame said slyly.

"I'm not your husband!"

There were more footsteps as both of them moved around.

"Oh! Nodame knows a perfect way to thank senpai!" Nodame said brightly. "Wait here for a second." Footsteps  
padded quickly across the room, a door creaked open, and then silence. A few seconds later, the sound of something being dragged through the doorway signaled Nodame's return.

"No! Put that thing back where it came from! You cannot drag that back here!" The door shut closed as the object was placed somewhat noisily on the floor.

"Chiaki's wife knows that her husband really likes the kotatsu! Teehee!" A few seconds of silence, punctuated by the TV as Nodame flipped eagerly through the channels in search of the PuriGurota marathon. A resigned sigh came, followed by the sound of slippers padding across the wooden floor. Stresseman watched as the slippers made their way towards the kitchen.

"Chiaki senpai! Come sit and watch with Nodame!" Stresseman watched as polkadotted pajama bottoms scuffled across the room toward the kitchen as well. "What is senpai doing?"

"I'm making snacks so you don't bother me about being hungry later." The sounds of pots being pulled out and running water filled the air.

"Waah, Chiaki is such an attentive husband." Nodame giggled as Chiaki sighed resignedly yet again. "Nodame wants to help."

A few minutes passed with only the sounds of kitchen rummaging and incomprehensible murmuring being heard.

"NODAME!!" Chiaki yelled alarmed. Stresseman winced as a burnt smell came to his nostrils. The sound of running water was heard. "How did you manage to set the pot on fire while boiling water?!?!"

"Well, Nodame was only-" Chiaki cut her off.

"Never mind, I don't want to know." More clattering and rummaging through the kitchen. "Nodame, just grab some pillows from the closet over there for the kotatsu."

"Hai, senpai." Twenty minutes passed without incident as Nodame watched her anime happily and Chiaki concentrated on cooking. Stresseman observed as black sweat pants walked by. He heard the muffled clack clack of two plates being placed on the clothed kotatsu.

"Mukya, senpai can cook so well!"

"Baka, it's just that you cook so poorly! How can you start a fire while boiling water?!?!"

"Well, it was just that-"

"No, I said I didn't want to know."

"Oooh, senpai! PuriGurota's back!" The little jingle that introduced the return of the show sounded.

Stresseman fought off sleep, interested and intrigued at the interactions between Nodame-chan and his student.  
They certainly made a mismatched pair for an evening sleep over. He listened amusedly as they squabbled over the point of using space candy when you had a fairy friend that could make it possible for one to breathe in outer space. Stresseman was absolutely entertained as Nodame began speaking of the names they would give their future children, all named after PuriGurota characters. ("Five? Why would we have five? Besides, who would have children with a baka like you?" "Silly, we could have six if you think five isn't enough!")

After 2 hours had passed, Nodame and Chiaki began to nod off.

"Senpai, I want a glass of water." Nodame murmured sleepily.

"Shut up and just go to sleep." A few minutes later, both student musicians were silent and slumbering peacefully. Stresseman waited ten more minutes before getting up from his place on the couch to observe the two.

Nodame and Chiaki were both sprawled beneath the Kotatsu, Chiaki on one side of the Kotatsu, and Nodame on the side adjacent to Chiaki. They were turned toward one another, Chiaki motionless other than the rise and fall of his chest as he slept and Nodame murmuring occasionally as she dreamt.

Stresseman felt a wave of contentedness hit him. _Aahh, the early buds to spring_. He watched as Nodame whacked Chiaki in the forehead with the back of her hand as she continued to sleep. Chiaki merely groaned in his sleep and snuggled deeper into his pillow, slumbering on. Stresseman laughed softly. _Oooh, yes, definitely an interesting duo. I really do have to keep tabs on them in the future._ Making his way back to the couch, Stresseman settled himself and let dreams take him.

The following morning:

"WHO DREW A MUSTACHE ON MY FACE?"

"Gyabo, Nodame has one drawn too!!"

"OLD MAN!!!!"

"Hehehe, really Chiaki you look good with a mustache." A short pause. "Nodame, you do, too!"

"Mukya!"

Fin.

A/N Hope you enjoyed this! I wanted to capture an evening between Nodame and Chiaki that could've happened but I didn't want it to be an orthodox point of view. Haha, so Stresseman came to my rescue.

Recently, I've been on a Nodame fanfic spree. I can't seem to stop the flow of ideas. I became a Nodame fan a year ago when the Live Action first came out. Tamaki Hiroshi was gorgeous, Ueno Juri was kawaii, the storyline was fun and bubbly and sweet, and the characters were unforgettable. It was inevitable that I fell to Nodame Cantabile's charms. Yet, it wasn't until recently that I've been motivated to pick up the manga (and I'll be starting the anime soon). My Nodame fangirlism got a jump start when I started listening to Rhapsody in Blue randomly one day. Then BAM, I found out about the SP coming up and I was on a totally Nodame-centric rampage.

Anyways, comments are nice. 3 No flaming but constructive criticism is fine.


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